How to Make an Orange Creamsicle Smoothie without Oranges or Cream

I’m not a juice person. I used to be – I think I single-handedly kept Mott’s apple juice in business as a kid, and as a teenager managed to, if nothing else, get a glass of classic OJ down before running out the door for class. Then, I became a nutrition major, and decided that juice was “bad” because it was full of sugar, and therefore I wouldn’t be drinking it, pretty much ever.

I’ve since more or less abandoned that all-or-nothing, black-and-white, good-versus-bad mentality when it comes to food (with the exception of some skeevy chemicals and ethically-dubious foodstuffs), but I still don’t really drink juice. It really comes down to the fact that I’d rather eat a whole piece of fruit than drink a glass of juice.  

So naturally, when I realized that today is National Orange Juice Day, I figured I’d keep a low-profile and not say much. I certainly wouldn’t have a recipe to share! But then, wait, what’s that? I do have a recipe to share?

Well, kind of.

There’s no actual OJ in this recipe. There aren’t even any oranges. But I’m calling it an Orange Creamsicle Smoothie because the color reminds me of a creamsicle, there’s citrus in it, and it has a consistency reminiscent of that beloved childhood frozen treat, too – incredibly creamy, thick but not so much so that you have to break out a spoon. It’s cold and refreshing, but not brain-freeze-inducing cold (unless maybe you chug it, and with how delicious it tastes, I don’t know if anyone would blame you for trying). By adding the banana and clementine to the cantaloupe, it wound up being sweeter than my last cantaloupe smoothie, and I have Aggie from Aggie’s Kitchen to thank for the original recipe (and thank her I most certainly do!). Her recipes are simple, but she’s never led me astray, and this smoothie is certainly no exception.

The only thing I didn’t love about this recipe is the lack of protein. It’s really just straight-up fruit, and protein is what really helps make a meal satisfying and filling. Still, it tastes delicious and remains low-calorie enough that you could easily pair it with some eggs or egg whites, a handful of nuts, etc. You could also swap out the almond milk for soy or cow’s or add something like protein powder or nut butter to the blender.

One Year Ago: Healthy, Homemade Tortilla Bowls, Cinco de Mayo Recipe Round-Up

Two Years Ago: Chicken Florentine Roulades, Chicken Verde Tortilla Stacks, Easy Black Bean Dip, & Black Bean “Tortizzas”

Three Years Ago: Happy Biscuits (Iced Sugar Cookies)

Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

This naturally sweet breakfast beverage may not have actual oranges in it, but you’ll be immediately transported back to your childhood with the citrus-cream combination, without all the artificial ingredients and added sugar.

Yield: 1 serving

Active Time: 2-3 minutes

Total Time: 2-3 minutes

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

½ ripe banana, chunked

1 (very small) Clementine, peel & pith removed

1 cup frozen cantaloupe chunks

The Method

Add all of the ingredients to the blender, preferably in the order listed, and puree until completely smooth. You may need to use a spoon, small spatula, or knife between blending bursts to move the frozen fruit around and get it all to puree.

Nutrition Information: 182 calories. 4g fat (0g saturated). 0mg cholesterol. 207mg sodium. 37g carbohydrates (5g fiber, 27g sugar). 4g protein.

Source, adapted: Aggie’s Kitchen

If you were going to have a liquid form of fruit, would you rather drink juice or a smoothie?

WIAW #10: Veggies Galore!

What a crazy time it’s been since my last post! I had to keep it quiet because every once in a while my sister sees my posts, but this past weekend, as Maid of Honor, I threw her a bridal shower – her wedding‘s in June. If it had been up to me I probably would have catered the entire thing, but we had it at a nice little restaurant and I just provided a small groom’s cake to complement the larger bride’s cake (although the shower was female, the boys ate in a separate room and came down for gifts and dessert). I let my pent up creative juices out via the decorations instead! I’ve been toying with the idea of posting about the day – I have tons of pictures of the decorations, plus I’m about as proud of that little groom’s cake as a first-time-mom is of her infant taking its first steps. Well, maybe not quite that proud, but it did turn out magnificently. Would you guys be into that kind of post? There won’t be too much food involved, which is why I hesitate. I’d love your input!

 

Until then, though, let’s take a look at what I’ve been eating lately:

One Year Ago: Egg Stuffed Peppers, Turkey Bolognese Burgers

Two Years Ago: Spicy Edamame Pods

Yesterday for breakfast I decided to try an orange-flavored yogurt. I cut into the orange and was surprised to find this gorgeously saturated flesh – I’ve never seen a more vibrant orange that wasn’t a blood orange! I also dousedsprinkled it with cinnamon and added a few blueberries on top. I’m being a little stingy with my blueberries – we’re down to our last container in the freezer from blueberry picking last summer, and it’ll be months before we can get back out there again. 

Second breakfast was my go-to gold standard mid-morning snack: 1 banana and around 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter that I doused sprinkled with some more cinnamon. I only photographed 1/2 banana, but still felt super hungry so I noshed on the other half, too.

I had some leftover chicken salad from a local restaurant, but we were out of salad greens – my usual chicken salad pairing. So instead for lunch I chopped up a bunch of other fresh vegetables – broccoli, carrots, and red pepper – and made a leafless “salad.” I also had a few Triscuits, my total guilty pleasure in terms of storebought savory snack foods, to add a bit of crunch and whole grains to the meal.

Dinner was at L’s, and we had a surprisingly veggie-centric meal. His mom made polenta with an assortment of roasted vegetables for topping – butternut squash, mushrooms, and broccolini. It was all pretty simple, dressed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and extremely delicious. She also made cranberry corn muffins with the leftover cornmeal, and since I was pretty full from an entire dinner plate’s worth of vegetables, I snuck a bite of L‘s and called it a night. (The muffin, by the way, was scrumptious – a word that I feel should only be used to describe muffins, or by little old ladies to describe young children with pudgy cheeks.)

P.S. HAPPY MAY! Can you believe April is already over? Now, if only Mother Nature would catch up with the calendar!

Give this Carrot-Raisin Snack Wrap a chance!

A tortilla, a full carrot, and raisins, all in one snack? Am I crazy? And I dare to call myself a dietetic intern, a soon-to-be Registered dietitian? Do I even know how many carbohydrates are in this thing?

I do: 39 grams. 10 of which come from fiber.

There was a time in my life when I would have been appalled by this Carrot-Raisin Snack Wrap. I know many people who still would be. Carrots and raisins have bad reputations, when the truth is, you’d have to eat a whole lot of carrots to consume an unacceptable amount of carbohydrates, and the sugar found in raisins is 100% naturally occurring. Both foods have so many other wonderful nutrients – fiber and vitamins and minerals – that it’d be a real shame to shun them just because some silly person started a rumor that they’re high in sugar. Stick with modest portions and you can have a completely healthy, carrot-and-raisin filled diet.

And you can get to eat this delicious Carrot-Raisin Snack Wrap.

I needed this as a monotony-breaker, a mid-morning snack between breakfast and lunch that wasn’t a banana and peanut butter, or grapes and peanut butter, or a banana and almonds. I was inspired by Snack Girl, who has some killer healthy recipes and snack ideas; if you’ve never perused her blog, you really should. My recipe uses yogurt instead of cream cheese and I messed with the ratio of ingredients and the yield. It still satisfied my sweet tooth without getting in my face about it, and because I made it the night before, the raisins absorbed some of the moisture from the yogurt and plumped up a little bit. It really was a great little treat, and you can bet I’ll be making it again.

One Year Ago: Vegetarian Mexican Lasagna

Two Years Ago: Vibrant, Healthy Tofu Stir-Fry, Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Carrot-Raisin Snack Wrap

This little wrap is creamy and sweet, and sure to satisfy those mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack attacks.

Yield: 1 serving

Active Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 3 minutes

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 whole grain tortilla¹

1 tablespoon non-fat plain Greek yogurt

ground cinnamon, to taste

1 tablespoon raisins

1 carrot, peeled & grated

The Method

Spread the yogurt over the entire wrap, leaving about a ½ inch border around the edge. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Working on about ⅔ of the wrap (re: leave ⅓ plain/untopped), add the raisins and carrot. Fold the two shorter sides of the wrap in to the center then start rolling the wrap long-ways, from the side with the raisins and carrots to the plain/untopped side. Eat immediately or wrap tightly and refrigerate for later; wrap should be eaten within a day to prevent the tortilla from getting stale and the wrap too soggy.

Nutrition Information: 175 calories. 2g fat (0g saturated). 0mg cholesterol. 378mg sodium. 39g carbohydrates (10g fiber, 14g sugar). 9g protein.

Source, adapted: Snack Girl

Notes:

¹The wrap you choose can dramatically impact your calories and, if you’re still concerned, carbohydrate content. The nutrition information for this recipe was calculated using La Tortilla Factory’s Smart & Delicious Whole Wheat Wraps. I’m also a fan of Cedar’s whole grain wraps, but many of the larger tortillas can have over 350 calories in them. I prefer the whole grain ones with closer to 100 calories and a relatively short ingredient list.

Have you ever mistakenly avoided a healthy food because it had a bad reputation?

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Meatloaf! Mashed Cauliflower! Sauteed Vegetables! …Cupcakes?!

For someone who never grew up eating meatloaf, I sure have made up for lost time. I can’t help it – a well-cooked recipe using ground meat is just so satisfying to me (as much as I love lean & vegetarian proteins, there’s something about a fat, medium-rare burger that can’t be beat). So when I found yet another meatloaf recipe in Rachael Ray’s cookbook, this time in the form of muffins, I knew it was only a matter of time before I made it. Then, the wheels started turning, and my train of thought went a little something like this: it’s almost a law that you make some form of mashed potato to serve alongside meatloaf àmashed potatoes have a similar consistency to a buttercream frosting àI’m already making the meat loaves in muffin cupcake pans à….

…and in that moment, these Meatloaf “Cupcakes” were born (but if it weirds you out too much to use “meatloaf” and “cupcake” in the same sentence, you can call them Meatloaf Muffins or Miniature Meatloaves; they’ll still taste fabulous). I wasn’t done tampering yet, though: I played with the meat loaf recipe; I took her recipe for Smashed Potatoes and Cream Cheese and turned it into dairy-free mashed cauliflower instead, because it just sounded way better; and I took a third Rachael Ray recipe, this one for sautéed veggies (intended for steak) and plopped them on as a cupcake “garnish.” It was all very cupcake wars, let me tell you. I was killing it.

The end result was the juiciest, most tender portion of meat you’ll likely ever come across, sweet from the barbeque sauce (choose one without high fructose corn syrup!) and almost addictive. The vegetables add a much-needed pop of color. The whole meal is surprisingly filling, and utterly satisfying. Even if you’ve up until now declared yourself a meatloaf hater, as long as you eat red meat then you’ll go crazy for this recipe.

My one word of caution: these are alarmingly liquidy, and will fall apart if you aren’t super careful removing them from the pan. However, I have no intention of modifying the recipe to contain less juice because, I mean, come on! They were just too good to mess with. Too, too good.

One Year Ago: Elvis French Toast “Sammies”

Two Years Ago: Edamame Nachos

Meatloaf Cupcakes with Mashed Cauliflower Frosting & Sauteed Vegetable Garnish

These “cupcakes” are just fun, that’s all there is to it! Plus, they’re some of the most flavorful, tender foods I’ve ever tasted. Make them in mini-form for a crowd-wowing appetizer, or bake them in the standard cups for a family meal.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Active Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients: Meat Loaves

1 small yellow onion, quartered.

½ large green bell pepper, stems & seeds removed, chunked

1 large egg, beaten

½ cup panko bread crumbs

½ tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

½ cup sweet (HFCS-free) barbecue sauce

¼ cup tomato salsa

1 tablespoon (HFCS-free) Worcestershire sauce

1 pound (grass-fed)ground beef¹

The Ingredients: Mashed Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

¼ – ⅓ cup unsweetened almond milk

1 tablespoon butter or non-hydrogenated spread²

7 chives, minced

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes

The Ingredients: Sauteed Vegetables

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound large white mushrooms, sliced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

½ large red onion, sliced

4 cups spinach

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

The Method

Preheat your oven to 450˚ Fahrenheit and lightly grease a muffin tin; set aside.

Place the onion and bell pepper pieces for the meat loaf in a food processor and pulse to finely chop. Transfer the vegetables to a mixing bowl along with the egg and remaining ingredients. Stir to combine, then use your (clean) hands to mix in the ground beef. Divide the meat mixture evenly amongst the muffin wells, making approximately 1 dozen “cupcakes.” Place in the preheated oven to bake for approximately 15 minutes.

While the meat loaf cupcakes cook, place the cauliflower florets on the stove to steam until tender, approximately 2 minutes. Transfer to the food processor and pulse until it resembles cous-cous, 3-5 minutes. Stream in the almond milk and puree to the desired consistency, approximating mashed potatoes. Mix in the butter/spread, chives, and nutritional yeast,  and set aside.

Add the mushrooms and remaining olive oil to a sauté pan set over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have started to brown and soften. Add the remaining vegetables and black pepper, and continue to cook over medium heat until tender and slightly brown, lowering the heat as necessary to keep warm while you finish the recipe (you can add the spinach in particular at the last minute to let it wilt slightly without getting cooked to death).

Meanwhile, remove the meat loaf cupcakes from the oven and carefully – very carefully (I used two sets of tongs contorted to support all 4 sides of the cupcake) – transfer to a lined and/or lightly greased baking sheet. Change the oven settings from bake to broil and move a rack to the top of the oven. Place one ice cream scoop worth of mashed cauliflower on top of each cupcake and place under the broiler to heat and brown, 3-5 minutes. Serve topped or alongside the sautéed vegetables.

Nutrition Information (per cupcake): 168 calories. 8.5g fat (2.5g saturated). 41mg cholesterol. 202mg sodium. 13.5g carbohydrate (2.5g fiber, 6g sugar). 10.5g protein.

Source, adapted: Rachael Ray’s Classic 30 Minute Meals (3 recipes)

Notes:

¹The only ground grass-fed beef I can ever seem to get my hands on is 80-20; this is not particularly lean and if you have the option for 90-10, that would be better. Since I eat red meat so infrequently, I don’t stress too much as I’d rather have fattier grass-fed meat than leaner corn-fed beef, but choose what works best for your lifestyle.

Also be sure to check out my slowly-coming-together recipe archive! I’ve been wanting to redo it for a while, and as I go back through my recipes and add nutrition information, I’ve started the process. The appetizer section is done and I’m hoping to finish the beverages today or tomorrow. What do you think? It’s not as a fancy as I could do with my own domain, I’m sure, but I’m excited to be cleaning up the blog on Blogger until I’m able to afford my own web space.

Cocoa-Loco ‘Nana Oatmeal – The Healthy Chocolate-Almond Fix

Happy Earth Day!

Unfortunately, the connections between this post and Earth Day end here. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a day dedicated to caring for the world (though really, I’m even more for 365 days a year dedicated to caring for the world, not just one) – I just don’t really have any archived recipes to tell you about that absolutely scream good for the environment – like an organic kale hemp smoothie or something.

I’d apologize, but there’s no way an organic kale hemp smoothie would taste as amazing as this Cocoa-Loco ‘Nana Oatmeal. And it’s also vegetarian, dairy free, and can be made using organic ingredients if you so choose – so even better!

I feel like the only thing I need to tell you about this recipe is that when I tasted it, I thought to myself, “With breakfast like this, who needs dessert?” Yes, the girl who last night had an epic dish of Chunky Monkey shortbread bars, a layer of additional chocolate, a punch in the face touch of banana liqueur, and a pile of thawed raspberries for good measure – that same girl is standing before you today telling you that I think I’d be content without dessert, as long as I had recipes like this at my disposal. 

 

What makes this recipe stand out is how prominent the almond flavor is – there really is no mistaking it. And then the cocoa powder and banana are right behind it, backing it up with that familiar flavor combination that so many people love. It’s completely satisfying, easy, and I even made it as overnight oats once with great success. So whether you want to whip up a warm, filling bowl of traditional oatmeal (turned on its head!), or you want a prepare-the-night-before, grab-and-go container of overnight oats that packs some serious flavor, you’ll want to give this a try.

The original recipe is from Brianne at Cupcakes & Kale Chips, so if you’re not familiar with her blog, after you’re done reading my version of her original, you should hop on over to her site and check it out. She comes up with some fantastic meals, this oatmeal being a perfect example. I tweaked it to make it fit my tastes and the way I like to cook oatmeal, but without her creativity with the original, I wouldn’t be sharing this with you today.

One Year Ago:  Rad Roasted Radishes, Strawberry, Basil & Balsmic Smoothie

Cocoa-Loco ‘Nana Oatmeal

With breakfasts that taste as decadent as this – rich cocoa powder swirled with almond extract and a sweet banana – it’s not difficult to choose healthy food.

Yield: 1 serving

Active Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

(printablerecipe)

The Ingredients

⅔ cup unsweetened almond milk

⅓ cup old fashioned oats

½ large banana, mashed well

½ teaspoon almond extract

2 teaspoons dark cocoa powder

1 tablespoon almond butter

almonds, banana slices, or chocolate chips for topping (optional)

The Method¹

Heat the milk in a saucepan set over medium heat, stirring occasionally until bubbling, approximately 5 minutes. Stir in the oats and continue whisking frequently for 2 minutes more. Add in the remaining ingredients, continuing to sir, until thick, 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and dig in!

Nutritional Information (excluding toppings): 304 calories. 13g fat (1g saturated). 0mg cholesterol. 121 mg sodium. 40g carbohydrates (7g fiber, 10g sugar). 9g protein.

Notes:

¹For overnight oats, simply toss all of the ingredients together in a lidded container and set in the fridge overnight. When you wake up, it should be ready to go!

Source, adapted: Cupcakes and Kale Chips

Are you doing anything special to celebrate Earth Day today?

Individual Chocolate Soaked Buttercream Cakes (aka Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover Cakes)

I must not want this blog to kick off. I must not want to amass more wonderful, inspiring readers, or prove to some publishing company that they should absolutely gamble on a cookbook based on the blog, or in the back of my mind daydream about what it would be like if I could turn this into an actual career. If I wanted these things, any of them, I would not tell you about this recipe for Chocolate Soaked Buttercream Cakes. I mean, look at them for Pete’s sake! Are they not the most homely of desserts you’ve ever seen? I even tried, and failed, to improve them with some pretty fruit, but I think it’ll take an all out berry compote to mask these suckers. They’re not even homely in the way that bread pudding can be challenging to photograph well. These are some seriously. Ugly. Cakes.

They’re also some of the most downright fantastic little morsels I’ve ever tasted.

This recipe is hinged on the quality of cake and, even more-so than that, buttercream that you use. I cheated and used a container purchased from my favorite little cupcakery – I had some in the freezer from an embarrassingly long time ago; this recipe was actually devised as a means of using up the last of it, along with some champagne cupcakes that had also recently come to my attention from the depths of the freezer shelf. The buttercream I used was extremely rich, and believe that your success is also dependent upon going all out on a ridiculously over the top frosting recipe. Don’t worry, it’s tempered by the much healthier and pleasantly subtle chocolate mixture that the cakes soak in, and the cakes themselves are pretty tame, somewhat akin to angel food cake in texture. 

This dessert is practically a revelation. The texture is good – not soggy, but certainly soft – but it’s the flavor, the rich sweetness, that makes these buttercream cakes the phenomenal little desserts they are. Because I used ingredients from my freezer, the time indicated in the recipe below doesn’t take into account things like baking the cake and whipping up the frosting, but that will probably take you under an hour, including clean up.

Do you have any recipes that you love, despite being rather unfortunate looking? 

One Year Ago: Fresh Herbed Turkey Burger, Vegetarian Burritos with Roasted Salsa

Two Years Ago: Buffalo Turkey Lettuce Wraps, Banana Liqueur Pudding

Three Years Ago: S’more Blondies

Chocolate Soaked Buttercream Cakes

These cakes may be small, but they’re practically bursting with decadence. The angel food cake holds up against the subtle chocolate sauce, and the rich buttercream holds it all together in one delicious little package.

Yield: 4 little cakes

Active Time: 8-10 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes, minimum

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

6 spongy cupcakes¹

6-8 tablespoons favorite vanilla buttercream²

½ cup plain, unsweetened almond milk

½ tablespoon dark cocoa powder

The Method

Cube or crumble the cupcakes and mix in a bowl with the buttercream. Line a baking sheet with wax paper and place four medium-sized cookie cutters (to use as molds) on the sheet. If you want all the cakes to be the same size and shape and don’t have duplicate cookie cutters, you’ll have to use one and repeat until all of the cake is molded. Press approximately ¼ of the cake-buttercream mixture firmly into each cookie cutter. Carefully, use one hand to gently pull the cookie cutter up with the other hand coaxes the cake down and out; reshape if any pesky pieces crumble off. Place into the freezer until frozen solid, at least 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the almond milk and cocoa powder until no (or as few as possible) clumps remain. Transfer the frozen cakes to a pie plate and pour the cocoa-almond sauce over them as evenly as possible and count to five slowly. Flip the cakes over to coat the other side. Transfer to a new container (I put them back on the baking sheet, rinsed and dried the pie plate, and then lifted the cakes – wax paper and all – back onto the plate). Cover and refrigerate until serving.

Cakes will keep up to a day in the refrigerator, but may become increasingly more fragile the longer they’re allowed to sit.

Nutrition Information³: 402 calories. 15g fat (7g saturated). 100mg cholesterol. 90mg sodium. 63g carbohydrates (0.5g fiber, 52g sugar). 3.5g protein.

Source: Floptimism Original

Notes:

¹The ones in my freezer, I think, came from this recipe by Annie’s Eats. I think. Like I said, they were made a very long time ago and then disappeared into my freezer. It’s easy to get lost in there.

²Again, I used a frosting that came from an actual bakery, so I don’t have a recipe. I have, however, had luck with this recipefrom Confections of a Foodie Bride in the past. The one thing I will say is that the frosting I used had actually vanilla bean flecks in it, which I think has a big impact on the flavor, so if you can, use a vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste instead of extract, regardless of the recipe you use.

³This is based on the recipes I linked to in the above notes (1 & 2), and may vary based on the recipes you choose to use. Actually it’s sobering to see how caloric these are, yet how easily you could eat not just one, but several. 

Green (with envy for this…) Mango Smoothie

My How to Build Your Own Smoothie post back from September 2011 is actually the most popular post/recipe on Floptimism, and I’ve posted a whole slew of other smoothie recipes since then. If you make a smoothie right, I’ve found that it can keep you full for a long time. That means making sure you include ample fiber and protein along with the simple sugars from the fruit and dairy/alternative. I’ve also noticed that if you do it wrong – you load up your blender fruit and little else in the way of calories, you’ll have bombarded your circulatory system with easily absorbed sugars and you’ll be hungry again in no time at all. Making your own smoothies is easy and doesn’t have to be outrageously expensive, but it does take a little bit of understanding to get the necessary components down pat. If you haven’t checked out my how-to post, I definitely recommend it.

In the meantime, this Green Mango smoothie does exactly what it’s meant to – it tides you over for a busy, busy morning. It also tastes delicious and refreshing, the warm spices complementing the mango surprisingly well. You’ll never taste the kale or the flax, but these components help to make this otherwise simplistic smoothie one that will keep you satisfied for more than 10 minutes. You certainly don’t need a high-powered blender, though if you don’t have one (I don’t), be prepared for some flecks of kale and flax rather than a 100% smooth product. Again, I didn’t taste it  or find it texturally distracting, but if you’re new to green smoothies or a little squeamish when it comes to textures, be prepared for that.

One Year Ago: The Cheesiest Cheeseless Omelet on Earth

Two Years Ago: Savory Oatmeal

Smoothies in the Past: Blueberry Pie Smoothie, Pink Lemonade Smoothie, Raspberry Linzer Smoothie, Strawberry, Basil & Balsamic Smoothie, Strawberry Cantaloupe Smoothie Sorbet, Strawberry-Mango Power Smoothie, Sunrise Daiquiri Smoothie, Sweet Potato Power Smoothie

Green Mango Smoothie

This smoothie gets its sweetness and texture naturally from frozen mango, with refreshing spices to enhance the flavor. And if it weren’t for the distinct green color, you’d never know there was kale in it. Pinkie swear.

Yield: 1 serving

Active Time: 3-5 minutes

Total Time: 3-5 minutes

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

1 cup almond milk

1 tablespoon ground flax meal

¼ – ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon ground ginger

scant ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

scant ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup torn kale

1 small mango, cubed and frozen¹

The Method

Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth (it sometimes helps to layer it in the order specifying, beginning with the easiest things to blend and ending with the most difficult ones). Serve immediately.

Nutrition Information: 212 calories. 7g fat (0g saturated). 0mg cholesterol. 213mg sodium. 37g carbohydrates (8g fiber, 23g sugar). 6g protein.

Notes:

¹Depending on how good you are at extracting the flesh from the skin and core, a mango can yield different amounts. I would guess that I had about 1 cup fruit to put into the smoothie, which is what the nutritional analysis reflects. I apologize that I don’t have a more exact measurement for this one.